Nest Bedding has been around for a few years now, but they’ve recently come out with a few new mattresses to enter the direct-to-consumer market. A lot of companies have popped up recently trying to capitalize on the trend of selling mattresses directly to the customers instead of through traditional retail, but Nest Bedding is in it for the long haul. That’s why I decided to review their mattresses. I’ve turned down many companies that I suspect are just looking to make quick money rather than making the best mattresses.

Nest Bedding has two chief lineups they sell directly to the consumer right now: the Alexander which is their luxury lineup (which I review here), and the Love Bed, which is their more “standard” mattress which is the subject of this review.

The Love Bed as seen in the San Francisco showroom

Here I will look at many factors like construction of the mattress, how the mattress feels, how much it costs, and warranty and return policies.

Construction

This part gets a little technical, so feel free to skip it.

These are the layers as shown on Nest Bedding’s website.

The Love Bed lineup has two versions: a firm and a medium. All three use a 6″ thick, 1.8 pound density poly foam support base (which is pretty standard.) The top layer is 1.5 inches of a soft quilted foam. The next layer is a type of foam called Energex. It’s designed to be a quicker response foam than regular memory foam. The Energex layer is 2 inches thick on the medium and 1 inch thick on the firm.

The support layer is convoluted, which means it’s egg crate shaped. This allows the mattress to breathe better and also helps the mattress contour to your body as needed.

The poly foam used is CertiPUR-US certified and the mattresses are made in the USA, so you don’t need to worry about offgassing or quality assurance from China.

If your eyes glazed over at the talk of foam densities and the like, the takeaway here is that the mattresses are solidly built. The difference between the three models is the quilting on the top and how hard the latex is under that.

How they feel

As we like to say in the mattress industry, “the feel is the deal,” so how do the three Love Bed models feel?

(Update: Nest Bedding changed their models, so as of writing this, I have not tried the new versions. Disregard the below statements.)

Love Bed Firm

The Love Bed Firm is one of the hardest mattresses out there. On a scale from 1 to 10 where 1 is the hardest, this is right around a 1. I generally don’t recommend a mattress this hard. You need a mattress that will support your body evenly, which means it needs to take the shape of your body. When you’re on your back, you need the mattress to come up to support the lumbar curve in your spine. When you’re on your side, you need the mattress to go around your shoulder and around your hip to keep your spine straight. That said, the Firm version might be good for:

Stomach sleepers who don’t have many curves to their body

Very heavy people who sleep on their back or stomach. (If you’re a very overweight side sleeper, consider getting something like this with a mattress topper on the top).

People who are used to an ultra-firm mattress like a Japenese futon

Love Bed Medium

The Medium will be the one to fit most of the population. It’s slightly softer than some of the other direct-to-consumer mattresses out there, which is fine because they tend to be on the firmer side anyway. It straddles the border between what most places call “plush” and “cushion firm.” On a scale from 1 to 10 where 1 is the firmest, this is about a 4.5. So it’s slightly firmer than their other medium bed (the Alexander medium), but this is a function of how far it contours. I am on the heavier side, so when I was lying down on my side, I felt like I “bottomed out” a little on the mattress, and I just didn’t feel that on the Alexander. If you’re more average weight, this won’t be as much of a problem. The Love Bed medium should be good for:

Most people. If you’re anywhere from a few pounds overweight to average, especially if you’re a side or back sleeper (which are the most common positions), the Medium is the one to get.

People who like softer mattresses, but still want some firmness to the mattress

Return policy

The Love Bed has a 100 night return policy, so you don’t have much to lose. This eliminates the downside of buying a mattress online. If it doesn’t work out for you, Nest makes it easy to return or exchange the mattress. There is no fee for the return, and they do NOT make you do the work to return it. They will find a local charity for you and donate the mattress.

Warranty

The Love Bed has a 10 year warranty which covers the mattress sagging more than an inch or any seams coming out. This 10 year warranty is the “industry standard” length. However, keep in mind that the warranty doesn’t necessarily reflect how long a mattress will be comfortable. The mattress will become less comfortable before it physically starts falling apart. I’d expect it to last about 7 or 8 years comfortably before you need to start looking for another mattress.

Price

The Love Bed is a very reasonable price. It retails at $799 in a queen size (and it’s $749 after using my coupon code, MATTRESSNERD50). The twin starts at $599 and the king goes up to $899 (again, before the coupon). It ships in a box free to your door. Nest Bedding doesn’t “play games” with their price, meaning you won’t find big sales; the Love Bed is priced fairly from the start.

These prices are just for the mattress, so you’ll need your own platform bed, frame and boxspring, or adjustable base for the mattress.

No chemical odor

Since I tried these out in the showroom rather than having them deliver a bunch of mattresses to me, I didn’t experience this firsthand, but the CEO of Nest Bedding assures me that there is no odor of “offgassing” with his mattresses. Other reviewers who have had them sent to their houses have confirmed this, and I have no reason to doubt anybody on this. That’s a very bold claim for a CEO to make, and I’m comfortable repeating it here. With many other foam mattresses, you have to air them out after you open them, and the scent goes away after a few days. With the Love Bed, there’s little to no scent at all even right from opening the package.

Conclusion

The Love Bed is a good option for a wide range of people. In general, if you have the money, I recommend getting the Alexander bed over the Love Bed, but the Love Bed makes a good “budget” version of the Alexander. It’s great for college students, guest rooms, young adults just starting out, and people that just can’t afford to spend over $1000 on a mattress.

MattressNerd Says

It looks like they might've. I don't see it on there either, but I haven't heard anything from the company about it, so I don't know.

natalie smith Says

April 25, 2016 at
11:40 pm

Hi do you know if they discontinued love bed soft? I dont see it on their site. Thanks!

Donna Says

April 25, 2016 at
8:23 pm

Just went to the Love Bed site and it does not have an option to choose the "Soft" version -- just medium and firm. Have they discontinued the soft?
Thanks,
Donna

MattressNerd Says

November 30, 2015 at
9:54 pm

Those other review sites are wrong. I don't know how to say it any other way. I don't know which one specifically you were looking at, but a lot of them rate every mattress roughly the same, and try to put them all in about the same firmness (that most people want) to get more sales. I just report them the way I see them, and the Love Bed Firm is the right bed for very few people.
The medium is still on the firmer side of the spectrum, but it will have a little bit of a plush feel.

Mark Fruehm Says

November 30, 2015 at
8:21 pm

Hi again,
Thanks for your response. I am confused by the varying reviews of the Love Bed firm. Based on what you describe that would definitely be too hard for our liking, but we are also worried that the medium will be too soft. Other review sites indicate that the firm love bed falls within the medium-firm rating at a 7-8 out if 10. If it's like a hard low-pile carpet that is too hard. Is the medium still firm enough that it won't feel like a push pillow top type feel?

MattressNerd Says

November 16, 2015 at
10:29 pm

The Alexander Firm is a little softer, but it's also a few hundred dollars more. It would be roughly the same price as the Love Bed plus a nice topper.
If you want to see the firmness of the Love Bed Firm, you don't really need to go into a store. If you have a carpeted floor in your house, that's roughly the same firmness.

Mark Fruehm Says

November 16, 2015 at
12:48 pm

Hello,
We are thinking about buying the Love Bed. We like a firmer mattress, but your rating of "1" for the Love Bed firm is scaring us off a bit. Nest Bedding says if we like a firmer bed, we should go with the firm, and then just get their topper which would make it a bit softer. Do you think this is a good compromise? Also, do you have any other beds that would compare to your rating of "1" that we could find in a major retailer just to get a sense of the firmness factor? Thanks,
- Mark

MattressNerd Says

October 26, 2015 at
10:45 am

You're missing the fact that the Love Bed is not made by Bed in a Box. Bed in a Box is a different brand.

MC Says

October 26, 2015 at
9:40 am

Hey Mattress Nerd,
Thanks to your diligence and research, I'm aiming for the Love Bed.
They appear to charge $75 for a "disposal and pickup fee" for their Bed in a Box products (source: http://www.nestbedding.com/pages/delivery-and-returns). I thought there were no fees involved in returning a mattress -- what am I missing here?
Thanks!

MattressNerd Says

September 25, 2015 at
4:33 pm

Thanks for this. I think they changed it from 20 to 10. Either that or I completely misread something.
In any case, it's been updated. Despite the 10 year warranty, it should last most of that length, since it uses latex and a strong HR foam base.

JQ Says

September 25, 2015 at
4:18 pm

FYI:
The "Love" mattress has a 10-year "full warranty," not a 20-year, as you've posted. The "Alexander" has a 20-year:
http://www.nestbedding.com/pages/nest-warranty

MattressNerd Says

August 21, 2015 at
8:16 am

The Love Bed Medium will be a bit softer than the Leesa, but they'll be similar in quality. So if you like things a little on the firmer side, go with the Leesa, if you like them a little on the softer side, get the Nest. For a back sleeper, firmer is often better, but this is not always the case (it varies by person), so it helps to go by what you've slept well on in the past.

Julie Says

August 20, 2015 at
3:12 pm

Based on your reviews, you seem to really like both the Nest Love Bed and the Leesa -- I'm trying to decide between the two. Do you like one of them better?
I've recently had a lot of lower back pain and I'm fairly certain much of it has to do with my old mattress. I'm 6'0 and 220 lbs, I sleep mostly on my back, with some tossing and turning onto my side and stomach.
From the research I've done, it seems like a Latex/Avena mattress is the way to go in terms of support and conformability. The Nest Alexander is out of my budget, so between the Love Bed Medium and the Leesa, what would you recommend?